Dónal Conway nominated unopposed to continue in the role of FAI President.

Shane Ross has written to him asking him to withdrawn his own nomination. And fair dues to him for that in fairness. Delaney still on the payroll what - three months later? - and no sign of any meaningful reform as yet. Looks like there's serious resistance to this in the FAI. They've issued a reply this evening highlighting the risks of everyone leaving at the same time. While there may be a point to that, I think the President is too senior a role to allow continuity given the circumstances.

Probably the only common ground myself and and Shane have. On the performance at the Dail inquest alone, Conway should have his head hung in shame for eternity.
But Shane Ross should confine himself to his area of influence and state that the government will not be convinced to change their decision on funding by recent or proposed appointments.

Thanks From:

I dont see how a government official making a suggestion or questioning new rules eg reducing quorum to 2 board members constitues political interference. Ok its in the rule book but it is not mandating that Conway withdraw it is a reccomendation. FIFA/UEFA should use some common sense on this knowing that the FAI is a disaster zone and that there are efforts to break up what seems like a kabal. I do agree that continuity is needed and that it is possible that Conway is hamstrung by the legalities of everything. Is it possible that UEFA/FIFA have some inside knwoledge on what lies ahead and are flexing their muscle to keep the person driving change in office? Its third part interference in its own right if not political. It would be different if the Dept of Sport sent in civil servants to run the association or something. One of the main issues is that of credibility and after the JD non performance at the Oireachtas Conway looks like he was in cahoots. Maybe he is following due process to maximise the culpability of the former CEO with the mess to save a large payoff. A lot of people are assuming that there is a blatant but sneaky effort to save ones own skin, but Conway is really putting himself out there and taking hit after hit on his reputation. A person with something to seriously hide would have cut and run ala JD and the Olympic tickets malarkey, Conways is doing the opposite. With some patience we might just see what his long game is. I'd rather not have had the FAI press office publicise this warning from FIFA/UEFA. For all the transparency we want on this occasion maybe a quiet letter to the minister would have sufficed rather than ramp up the eyeballing. There is no doubt that the PAC are fuming with what happened with the best paid gardner in the country and they want their pound of flesh. They too need to heed due process!

Between publicising the correspondence from FIFA and his comments about potential job losses (not to mention the way he conducted himself in the Oireachtas), Conway doesn't strike me as a guy who appreciates any political comments or perceived interference in the FAI, and is still deadset on a policy of "Stay the course until the story goes away".

Honestly, I think the fan protest aspect of this whole thing withered away too quickly. The tennis balls annoyed the hell out of some, but were their own sort of pressure.

Has FIFA ever suspended a UEFA association? I think Greece were done in 2006, but only for a very short time.

Was Macedonia suspended, or threatened with it?
AFAIR it was because they appointed two co-presidents of the association in order to satisfy the two major ethnicities of the country, but this is against FIFA rules.

We are fortunate that the FAI Deep Throat is still gurgling. The regular dispatches keep prícking pins into the FAI balloon - the ‘heads in sand and it will all blow away’ policy
DT is playing it smart, just leaking out enough each month. And presumably the english Times are also attentive to DT's financial requests,. Perhaps they have an established snitch fund?
The ET reported that the FAI head of security Marty McGlue wrote an email to Delaney (and his moth) informing them that
"the gardai are trying to hack into a (supporters) whatsapp group"

Did the FAI break with tradition and reply that "hack" was a word used incorrectly in this message?

Delaney must be having nightmares about Deep Throat and powerless to do anything about it.

What was the Paul Rowan story this weekend? FAI paying 100k a month to Sports Direct after a sponsorship deal fell through, and after Sports Duirect had paid money upfront to FAI? I haven't heard the amount or the timeframe.

Also, Top Lion (New Balance / Umbro distributor in Ireland) no longer kit supplier or whatever their role was exactly. On Twitter these stories appear to be related. So what exactly was Sports Direct's involvement? Shirt Sponsor? (unlikely) One of their brands being kit manufacturer?

What was the Paul Rowan story this weekend? FAI paying 100k a month to Sports Direct after a sponsorship deal fell through, and after Sports Duirect had paid money upfront to FAI? I haven't heard the amount or the timeframe.

Also, Top Lion (New Balance / Umbro distributor in Ireland) no longer kit supplier or whatever their role was exactly. On Twitter these stories appear to be related. So what exactly was Sports Direct's involvement? Shirt Sponsor? (unlikely) One of their brands being kit manufacturer?

Jesus you would hope that they werent being considered as a shirt sponsor

John Giles said he hoped his foundation would run another nine yearsSTEPHEN MCCARTHY/SPORTSFILEShareSave

The FAI paid €300,000 to a friend of John Giles for coming up with the “concept” of the John Giles Foundation, its fundraising walks, and a kit-purchasing idea.

The payments to Con Martin, a former League of Ireland player, were made in 2011-16 at the same time as FAI staff salaries were being cut. The €5,000-a-month payments to Martin were initially queried by FAI officials but sources say John Delaney, then chief executive, insisted they had to continue.

Since 2016, Martin has been threatening to sue the FAI for further monies he alleges the association owes him. According to minutes from a November 2016 FAI board meeting, Martin said he had been told by Giles that the FAI sold the Walk of Dreams concept to Uefa, the European governing authority for football, for €10m.

The board was told the “endgame” was “not giving him [Martin] any more money” but this would be “hard to achieve”. Delaney was said to be meeting Giles to discuss the issue.

The board was also told the FAI would attempt to settle Martin’s claim in order to prevent the case going to court and getting publicity. Delaney said he would attempt to get Martin to settle his claim, with a confidentiality clause.

Giles, an ex-Ireland player and manager and RTE football pundit, did not return calls last week. A friend of Giles said his position was that the FAI payments to Martin “had nothing to do with him”.

Established in 2011, the John Giles Foundation is run by the FAI, which controls its bank account. It is not a registered company or charity. It first ran countrywide sponsored walks for football clubs under the Walk of Dreams banner in 2011. While it reported raising €360,000 in 2011, this dropped to €60,000 in 2012, after many football clubs refused to get involved as the foundation was keeping half the money raised to distribute to other clubs and applicants.

One figure in football said: “We were encouraged to take part in Walk of Dreams in order to raise funds for clubs and leagues, in conjunction with our own fundraising. It fell apart after the first Walk of Dreams; the clubs wouldn’t support it any more. We raised a lot of money and got very little out of it.”

The foundation paid for Nadia Forde to fly over to Ireland and dance with John DelaneyBRIAN MCEVOTBRIAN MCEVOT

The foundation has since carried out fundraising events, including a dance competition for which Nadia Forde, a model, was paid to fly from Los Angeles to Dublin, where she danced with Delaney.

In April, when it was put to him during an interview on Newstalk that concerns about his foundation had been reported to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Giles said he had no concerns over the organisation as all money raised was used to support grassroots football. Giles said he hoped his foundation would last another nine years. Its website has not been operational in recent weeks. The last publicised event on its Facebook page was a 2017 golf classic.

This weekend Martin confirmed he got 60 payments of €5,000 between 2011 and 2016 from the FAI. He said the payments were for the Giles foundation, the Walk of Dreams, and a “concept” called Team Kit Wear which proposed combining all clubs’ purchasing power to secure discounts.

Martin said he signed a contract with the FAI in 2008. He ran the John Giles golf classic for eight years, and says Giles approved him setting up a foundation that the FAI then “bought” from him.

Martin insisted he had not used Giles’s name when he told the FAI he had heard the association had sold his concept to Uefa. “I lost my head because I said that he [Delaney] had the rights for the Republic of Ireland only, and I had the copyright/intellectual property for the rest of the world,” said Martin.

He says his claim for further FAI payments is still alive and he is consulting his solicitor this week.
The FAI did not respond to questions. Last night Uefa said that “after an initial investigation” it could find no record of the alleged agreement with the FAI.